How Does Illiteracy or Limited Education Help You Get Disability?

The Social Security Administration (SSA) awards disability benefits to claimants who are unable to work full-time for at least one year due to a medically determinable impairment. When determining whether you're able to work, the agency will in some cases consider non-medical factors such as the highest education level you've achieved and whether you can read or write.

If you're younger than 45 or have a health condition severe enough to meet a listing, the SSA doesn't need to take into account how well you can read or write or how far you've gone in school. But if you're potentially eligible for benefits under the medical-vocational grid rules, it's important to know when (and how) the SSA will take your literacy and education into consideration when deciding whether you can work.

Is Not Being Able to Read or Write a Disability?

On its own, no. (Social Security considers you "illiterate" if you can't read or write simple messages, even if you can sign your name.) English proficiency isn't required to be considered illiterate—if you can communicate simple messages in any language, you're literate according to agency regulation SSR 20-01p.

Even though illiteracy isn't a disability on its own, the inability to read or write is a factor that the agency can take into consideration for claimants who are 45 years of age and older. That's because the SSA assumes that the younger you are, the easier it will be for you to train for a line of work. Furthermore, younger applicants are better positioned to find jobs (such as small-parts assembler) that involve working with objects rather than with data or other people. These types of jobs don't always require the ability to read or write.

When Being Illiterate Can Help You Win Your Disability Claim

Social Security's "grid rules" allow some claimants who are at least 45 years old to qualify for disability benefits even if they're physically able to perform less strenuous jobs than what they're used to. While the SSA normally needs to see that you can't do both your past work and any other work in the national economy, under the grid rules, you can get disability if your educational background makes it difficult for you to get retrained for a new job.

The grid rules are a series of tables that tell you whether you should be found "disabled" or "not disabled" according to factors such as your age, education, transferable skills, and residual functional capacity (RFC). Your RFC is the physical level of work that you can regularly perform despite your medical condition. For example, somebody with an RFC for light work can lift up to 20 pounds, while somebody with a sedentary RFC can lift up to 10 pounds on the job.

Below are some examples of how Social Security can use the grid rules to determine whether illiteracy is a contributing factor in deciding whether a claimant should be awarded disability.

Keep in mind that the grid rules only apply to people ages 45-49 in very limited circumstances. They're used much more frequently for claimants who are 50 years of age or older. And if you're younger than 45, they aren't used at all—even if you're unable to read or write and can't do your past work. Instead, you'll need to show that you can't do the simplest, least physically demanding jobs (or that your condition qualifies as a listed impairment).

What If I'm Not Illiterate But I Didn't Graduate High School?

Illiteracy isn't the only instance in which education can have an effect on your disability claim. Social Security also considers whether you have a marginal, limited, or high school education when applying the grid rules. The SSA mainly looks at the last grade you completed in school when determining your education level, but the agency can also take into account other factors like how well you scored on standardized testing or even how complex your hobbies are.

A high school education is generally defined as having completed formal schooling through the 12th grade. You don't have to have necessarily graduated in order to have a high school education—a GED or specialized vocational training can fit the bill. If you've gone to college or obtained an advanced degree, Social Security will still classify you as having a high school education for purposes of the grid rules. Anything less than a high school education can help you get disability benefits easier.

How Having a Marginal Education Affects Disability

If you didn't attend school past the 6th grade, you're considered to have a "marginal" education. According to the SSA, somebody with a marginal education has the reasoning, math, and language skills to do only simple, unskilled jobs. As such, marginal education is a limiting factor when it comes to doing other work—especially for claimants 60 and older. Here's an example of how the grid rules apply for claimants with a marginal education.

Not all of the grid rules use the word "marginal" when referring to education—some use the term "limited or less." "Marginal" education falls under the "or less" category here, so don't be misled into thinking that a grid rule doesn't apply to you just because it doesn't specifically say the word "marginal."

How Limited Education Affects Disability

If your last year of school was in the 7th to the 11th grade, your educational level is considered to be "limited." According to the SSA, claimants with limited education have reasoning, math, and language skills, but aren't qualified to do the more complex tasks needed for skilled and semi-skilled jobs. Below are a couple of examples showing how Social Security can apply the grid rules to claimants with limited education.

Because disability claims can take years to fully adjudicate, you might be disabled under the grid rules when you first start your application but "age into" an approval over time. For example, if you were 49 when the SSA denied you benefits because you could still do sit-down work and you turned 50 before your hearing with a disability judge, the judge can find you disabled as of your 50th birthday if a relevant grid rule directs a finding of disability for your new age category.

Strengthening Your Disability Claim With Evidence of Your Education Level

If you didn't graduate from high school, you'll need to provide the SSA with documentation of the last year of school that you attended. Typically, that will require you to contact the school district. It can also be helpful to let the agency know about the results of any tests you took, evidence that you were in a special education program, or other proof of your education level.

While you aren't required to hire an attorney at any stage of the disability determination process, it's usually a good idea. Factors that might seem trivial—like what grades you received in middle school or whether your job duties involved three- or four-step tasks—can become very important when you're trying to navigate the grid rules. Having an experienced disability lawyer can greatly increase your chances of successfully using the grid to get benefits.